What Are Banking Scams?

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Banking scams are email scams related to banking institutions. Some of the names of the banks that the scammers use are real and some are non-existent. The scammers may also use the names of real persons to contact you with and/or send you scans of fake bank officer identities. Sometimes real bank names, street addresses and websites are shown within the body of the scam emails to make the scams emails appear like the are coming from real banks, but often the scammer's email address is one from a free webmail email service like Google, Hotmail, Yahoo, etc. Fraudulent bank internet domain names and fake bank websites may also be used to make the scams look like a real bank is involved. However, all of these emails are scams and the emails are in no way ever connected to any real banks.

Banking scams often state that they are looking for your assistance to help transfer a large sum of money they claim is sitting in a so-called dormant bank account. Sometimes they call the funds "overdue payments", "recovered funds", funds from a deceased bank customer, etc. Other times they are offering to send you a so-called pre-loaded ATM card.

During the course of the scam the scammer may provide a so-called online banking website (with login details) in an attempt to prove that the funds truly exist and are safely sitting in a bank account awaiting payout. In all cases these bank websites are always fraudulent/fake websites owned and controlled by the scammer and the money that they are showing within the bank account are fictitious funds in a non-existent bank account. The scammer may also ask you to contact 2-3 different people that the scammer claims are also involved with the transaction as a psychological technique designed to make the transaction seem more legitimate. In most cases though you are dealing with only one scammer who is acting behind all of the various different personas being presented.

The scammer will eventually ask you to send some money before any of the money being promised can be sent out to you. This is a type of scam known as Advance-Fee Fraud. Advance-Fee Fraud is best described as an offer of money, merchandise, services, employment, or even romance, but where the victim is asked to pay a fee in advance to obtain whatever is being promised to them by the scammer. The main scam strategy of all advance-fee fraud scams is to try to persuade the victim to send money, and then continue to send more money to the scammer, as many times as possible, until the victim eventually runs out of money and/or goes into debt as a result of losses from the scam. And in the end, the victim never receives any of the money at all being promised by the scammer.

The scammer may also ask you to contact 2-3 other people during the course of the scam in which the scammer claims are also involved with the transaction. This is used as a psychological technique designed to make the transaction seem more legitimate. In most cases though you are dealing with only one scammer who is acting behind all of the various fictitious personas and various different email addresses being presented.

Please click here to read more about the psychological techniques used to deceive people with Advance-Fee Fraud scams. The following article on Wikipedia also explains more about Advance-Fee Scams in general: Wikipedia Link